RATIO

What Does RATIO Mean in a Text?

The Quick Answer

RATIO is a word used widely on social media to mean the proportion between the number of responses a social media post generates directly, compared to the responses generated by the comments on that post.

Likes, Re-posts and Comments

On TikTok, Twitter, and other social media platforms, RATIO refers to the proportion of likes and re-posts that a post gets, in relation to the number of comments it generates and the likes and re-posts that those comments get. If users engage more with a comment someone has made below a post than with the post itself, it probably reflects a negative response to the that post.

Especially on TikTok

RATIOING is particularly popular on TikTok, where commenting with hashtag #RATIO is often a blatant declaration of a popularity contest between the content creator and a person commenting on that content. RATIO is used by both creators and viewers as a call-to-action for the audience to balance the number of likes on the video with the number of likes that the comment receives. (For example, if the video has 1000 likes, but the #RATIO comment posted by a viewer receives 2000 likes, the RATIO would be 1:2, which is a lose (L) for the creator and a win (W) for the viewer.)

So, What's "Ratioing"?

When the proportion between the direct responses to a post and the responses to a comment on that post are different to 1:1, the losing party (L) is said to have been RATIOED.

Image for RATIO

When I write RATIO, I mean this:

"Proportion Between the Number of Responses a Social Media Post Generates Directly, Compared to the Responses Generated by the Comments on That Post"

Summary of Key Points

We have summarized the key points in the table below:

RATIO
Definition:	Proportion Between the Number of Responses a Social Media Post Generates Directly, Compared to the Responses Generated by the Comments on That Post
Type:	Word
Guessability:	3: Guessable
Typical Users:	Adults and Teenagers